Page 3757 - Week 11 - Thursday, 24 November 2022
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You should be able to wear what you like. You should have the right to peaceful protest. I will never stay silent about the oppression of women. That is why I am pleased that, through the women’s caucus that we have in the ACT Legislative Assembly, we talked about this topic recently and agreed that we could raise it in the Assembly, to demonstrate loud and clear our support for the women of Iran. We stand with the women of Iran.
MS VASSAROTTI (Kurrajong) (10.14): I rise to speak briefly to express my horror regarding reports of state violence against protests in Iran that were sparked by the horrific murder of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish origin who died in the custody of morality police on 16 September, after her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict dress code for women.
I rise to express that the ACT Greens stand in solidarity with the brave women and men, girls and boys who are expressing their fury at issues, including draconian compulsory hijab laws, security forces’ brutality, and wider government repression.
We add our voices to the international movement that declares that women’s rights are human rights, and that we must come together to ensure that all people have access to the right to live free from violence and harassment, be involved in community and public life, and have access to the resources to enable them to have a good life.
The bravery and solidarity that we are witnessing in Iran is admirable. This is particularly so in the context of such harsh penalties for public protest. Human Rights Watch has described the scale of the protest, particularly on issues of women’s choice and police accountability, as unprecedented. We cannot ignore the gendered impacts of authoritarian rule, whether it be by the Iranian government, the Taliban, Russia or others.
These protests have been going on for more than 40 days. Extraordinary acts of state violence have not cowed people from different ethnic backgrounds, which have seen schoolchildren, uni students and others uniting together to express their anger. This is solidarity, and it is crossing cultural and socio-economic lines. These protests have been met with acts of violence and brutality, mass arrests and, reportedly, killings of hundreds of people, including girls.
Human Rights Watch contend that these protests are not just about dress codes, but about economic justice. Despite high rates of university graduation, women’s unemployment rates are more than double that of their male counterparts, a troubling trend that has only widened since COVID-19. Their participation in the labour force is in the teens, and men are openly preferenced for roles when recruitment is undertaken. Access to sexual and reproductive health rights is severely limited and early marriage is actively encouraged by the state.
The ACT Greens and Australian Greens are in solidarity with the women of Iran. We will always protect the right to protest and be a loud voice against government’s attempts to silence people, whether in Iran or closer to home in Tasmania. We will always fight for women’s rights to choose their dress, their partner, their religion, their career and what they do with their bodies.
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